Waugh vs Ponting?

The great folk at Lord’s have started a video series comparing the greatest cricketers of all time.

Their first one is Waugh vs Ponting.

You can watch it by scrolling up and clicking play, or, should that be beyond you, here is the YouTube link.

In the spirit of full disclosure, they reached out to me and asked to help them promote it. I’m glad they did because there will be some interesting arguments. In return, they may (or may not) send a nice tweet or two linking to this article.

[pullquote]Waugh for me represented something, perhaps a set of values, that I wanted to be attached to.[/pullquote]

So, I’m going to have a crack at answering the Waugh vs Ponting question.

You should have a crack at leaving a comment with your thoughts. It’s only fair.

Let’s start with some stats.

Ok. I’ll admit that I’ve manipulated stats more than most to win an argument. It’s easily done.

However, in this case I don’t have a natural bias to either player. I saw them both play. They both went alright.

Some things of note:

Both played 168 Test matches.

Both players average 51 and a bit

Both made over 10,000 Test runs

Both captained their country in ODI and Test matches

Splitting hairs up until now, but the miniature has Ponting slightly ahead on almost every Test batting statistic.Its probably fair to say that Ponting was also a more explosive player and changed games more quickly, reaching 200 on 6 occasions. Waugh did it only once. However, Waugh also batted primarily at number 5 in his prime. Ponting was at 3.

Waugh’s batting originally was known for it’s crazy strokeplay, which tempered over time. His legacy will be his back foot cover drive. He was also unbreakable under the short ball, despite nearly every world team believing it to be his weakness.

The shot that defines Ponting’s batting is pull and hook. Not many made it look easier.

When we look at ODI batting records, Ponting is a clear winner. Averages 10 more with the bat and made 27 more ODI hundreds. Waugh however took 195 ODI wickets. What does that add to the debate?

Let’s look at their captaincy skills.

Was Waugh a better captain than Ponting? I think so.

Waugh led Australia in 15 of the 16 consecutive Tests won record. An amazing achievement that had never been done before…until Ponting also led a team to 16 consecutive Test wins.

He also made batting with the tail fashionable. He trusted his lower order players. He let them face balls rather than protect them from the strike. This in itself changed the way the game was played for a period.

Brave. Genius.

It’s hard to find a similar anecdote about Ponting. Perhaps a story exists here or there, but there were no consistent themes like with Waugh.

Waugh also gets the nod with the ball, but only because he once bowled. Not because his bowling was necessarily great.

Although he bowled in the early years, that was quickly put away, with him not bowling more than 10 overs in a Test innings past Jan 1998 through to his retirement 6 years later. So in the Test sense, Waugh moved from a brash all rounder to a dour middle order batsman.

Both men were real fighters.

Who will forget Waugh’s career saving 100 against England at the SCG in 2003 or the 1989 Ashes series that introduced his brilliance to the world? What about Ponting’s World Cup 140* in the 2003 World Cup final?

This list could go on for quite a while.

So who would I pick as the winner?

Call me old fashioned, but Steve Waugh represents an Australian cricketer of a now by-gone era. Tough. No hair gel. No IPL. Not that Ponting can be blamed for when he was born, but Waugh for me represented something, perhaps a set of values, that I wanted to be attached to.

Ponting, while still a great of the game, was just not as great.

Cricket is usually defined by statistics. In this instance, I am defining it by what feels right.

I haven’t gone into to too much depth with the analysis. That’s your job.

This is a discussion piece. So let’s discuss.

Lord’s gave us the topic with their marvellous video. We get to decide a winner.

Both excellent players and very good captains, If i had to choose one to bat for my life it’d be waugh. Ponting has the edge as a fielder, Waugh has a slight edge as a captain i think. Ponting got portrayed as a bit of a whinger as a skipper, not sure if it was fair or not, but it did seem during pontings reign that the way the laws of cricket were applied by the ICC and India’s power affected they way ponting was left to deal with issues. (thinking about the way Symonds got screwed over by CA & BCCI, Ponting couldn’t really do a thing about it)

It’s a VERY good catch, to think we would put our sportmen in such danger from injury with sight screens on the field of play, wow. What is it we have in Australia now (i’ve lived in the USA since 1990) work cover ? or whatever it’s called, would have fined them into submission surely! As for the ICC and other issues that both Ponting and Waugh faced , I guess it comes down to Pontings frustration showed a lot more then Waugh’s did. Waugh reminds me of the Aussie digger stereotype , he expects crap to happen and not go his way and he fights on anyway with nothing more then a stoic attitude and a wry grin. He’d be right at home as a member of Paul Hogan & Tony Bonner’s ANZACs (the TV Series) , Waugh seemed unflapable , where as you knew when womeone was getting under Ponting’s skin.

Asking who is best is a no go area really. You cannot ever get a proper answer. Different era’s, conditions, opposition make it impossible to assess. I prefer to say they were both good, but different.

I think Ponting was a better batsman, had a greater range of shots. Both courageous and both great captains. Waugh’s mental toughness could only be matched and never surpassed. Waugh was a great fielder. Ponting was a freak in the field, right up until his last game, maybe the best all round fielder ever. Hard to separate, I would put Ponting a fraction ahead as he was capable of total destruction as a batsman, eg. hi amazing innings in the world cup final. Batting at 3 is also harder than 5, they tried Waugh at 3 for a while but he struggled there. It is like 9.4 vs 9.3 IMO so basically a tie.

Waugh…without a doubt. From 2003 onwards, when Ponting’s batting took off, the game generally became favourable towards batsmen. The great West Indian and Pakistani quicks were no longer around and the Saffers too were going over the hill. And Ponting was highly suspect against spin and his record in the subcontinent is glaring…Around the time when pitches became flatter, bats became bigger and bowling attacks were in transition.

Waugh on the other hand scored runs against all opposition and in all conditions consistently.

You can never underestimate the impact of Ponting batting in dominant Australian sides behind Hayden, langer and possibly the greatest bowling attack of the last 25 years. For much of Waugh’s career the playing field was more even.